Laying the groundwork is an important part of any successful project. For growing young calves, the groundwork involves proper growth and development of the rumen and no other feedstuff plays a larger role in rumen development than calf starter. Proper rumen development is necessary for performance later in life, but before rumen development can occur, calves must be encouraged to eat calf starter. Calf starter is a crucial link to proper ruminal development and successful weaning. Since intake of dry feed initiates rumen development and allows early weaning, the availability and intake of calf starters is important to calves prior to weaning.
Ruminants, such as cattle, have a four compartment stomach, as opposed to the single stomach that human beings have. Two of these stomach compartments are the abomasum and the rumen. In a mature ruminant, fermentation of feed in the rumen provides the majority of energy and protein to the ruminant. On the other hand, in a newborn ruminant, the rumen is substantially undeveloped and the abomasum is the primary stomach compartment for digestion and nutrient assimilation. Consequently, young ruminants are typically fed a liquid diet containing readily digestible nutrients, since the abomasum is incapable of digesting sufficient amounts of more complex nutrients that typically form the majority of the nutrition found in solid feeds.
A calf is born with a small, underdeveloped, sterile rumen. Rumen development in young calves generally occurs during the first four to eight weeks of life. The consumption of calf starter by young calves at an early age is important for the development of a functioning rumen and to achieve optimal growth. By the fourth week of life, calves should be consuming more nutrients from calf starter than from milk replacer, which increases the importance of feeding a nutritious, highly palatable starter. Calf starters are an important part of every dairy farm's replacement heifer rearing program. Important characteristics when choosing a calf starter include ingredient choice and quality of manufacturing. Other significant qualities of a calf starter include knowing that the calf starter will remain fresh and not develop fines or molds over time.
Cattles are commonly bred and raised to produce food products, such as milk and beef, for human consumption. Maturation of cattle, as evidenced by weight gain, is an important factor that helps determine when a cow is ready to produce milk or is ready for market. Dairy farmers and cattle ranchers are greatly interested in techniques for economically achieving enhanced rates of ruminant weight gain, since such techniques beneficially reduce milk and beef production costs.
There are some patents of interest available for the development of feed compositions/supplements for the young live stock; the relevant ones include U.S. Pat. No. 3,619,200 which discloses the feed or feed supplement for use in increasing the efficiency of protein production relative to feed intake in ruminants wherein a proteinaceous feed material of plant, animal or synthetic origin is rendered resistant to breakdown within the rumen by chemical modification of the protein and/or the application of a protective coating. The U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,001 discloses a ruminally inert fat for a ruminant feed which is made by applying reducing sugars to oilseed meats and heating to induce non-enzymatic browning. The process is controlled to ensure penetration of the reducing sugars into the interior of cracked oilseed meat prior to browning. The browning reaction renders the protein which surrounds the oil resistant to rumen bacterial degradation to thereby encapsulate the oil in a protective matrix. U.S. Pat. No. 7,160,552 discloses a method of feeding ruminants, the method includes feeding a ruminant a fluid animal feed during a feeding period, the fluid animal feed including an animal feed component and the ruminant consuming greater than about 1.25 pounds of the animal feed component per day, based on the dry weight of the animal feed component, during the feeding period; and the method further includes feeding the ruminant a psyllium composition during the feeding period. The invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. Appln. No. 20030194424 relates to a feed for neonates which composed of 94 to 88% of dry matter, 20 to 30% of protein, 6 to 10% of fat, 3 to 6% of fiber, 5 to 7% of ashes, 1.2 to 1.4% of Ca and 0.8 to 1.2 of P. The product's digestibility reaches 93% providing metabolizable energy of 4,200 calories. U.S. Pat. Appln. No. 20070298142 discloses both the liquid and dry form Morinda citrifolia enhanced animal food products they contain pasteurized fruit puree and other M. citifolia plant products. U.S. Pat. Appln. No. 20080193587 discloses the composition and method for feeding a young livestock animal. The method for producing a composition formulated for young livestock and includes mixing distillers solubles with at least one of a milk replacer powder, whole milk, and waste milk.
The existing calf starter compositions achieve only the rumen development and weight gain for calf but none of them address the problems of gynecological disorders which are associated with the calf for complete functional maturity at the desired period. Hence the prior art compositions therefore leave significant room for improvement of these compositions with natural components as alternatives.
The herbal revolution and its implementation to daily nutrient intake or function food/dietary supplements with desired therapeutic efficacy led the world populations graeat interest in the herbal compositions. This ultimately led to researchers to develop them in functional food and nutraceuticals and finally to develop marketable products. Functional foods are substances that provide health benefits beyond the normal nutritional values and nutrients added, which are not naturally occurring in that food is called as functional fortified food. The plants are the major source among the Indian masses, since most important foods of mankind as these are not only nutritive but are also sometimes indispensable for the maintenance of health.
It would be desirable to more widely employ natural agents such as herbal mixtures in order to benefit from their safe and beneficial activity. In particular, it would be desirable to use natural agents to induce a more rapid response from herbal medicines by stimulating their beneficial action. The desirability of a combination of natural agents would be dependent, however, upon the continued absence of adverse side effects.
There is no availability of the herbal calf starter composition, which contain medicinal herbs and which addresses the problems of proper growth and development of the rumen to achieve overall structural growth and weight gain along with addressing the problems of gynecological disorders which are associated with the calf for complete functional maturity at the desired period. Hence the present inventor aim is to address the above problems without undesired side effects by developing the herbal calf starter compositions mainly comprising medicinal herbs and one or more additives selected from protein and fat sources, chelated minerals and mineral mixture which are used in functional foods, and vitamins.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, the compositions and process of preparation thereof.